


Mars is Bright Tonight

by tjs_whatnot



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drabble, Friendship, Hogwarts Era, Second War with Voldemort, The Quidditch Pitch: From Diagon Alley to Hogwarts, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-01
Updated: 2009-01-01
Packaged: 2018-10-27 08:02:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10805091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjs_whatnot/pseuds/tjs_whatnot
Summary: The night of victory, Harry goes to find Ron and they share a moment.





	Mars is Bright Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

Harry thought he’d be able to sleep forever the night that Voldemort fell the final time; that the world could cave in around him and he’d happily doze through it. But, the world _had_ caved in and it slipped into his resting mind, making him jump with every nighttime flutter. So much had been lost and so much more had been irrevocably changed, the thought of it kept him restless. When he finally realized Ron was no longer sleeping beside him he marveled at his friend's stealth, shrugged off weariness and went looking for him.

 

Pulling out the map, he found Ron’s dot at the top of the Astronomy Tower. He was awed that the tower was still there. Unfortunately, most of the ways of getting there were not. After climbing over debris, jumping over broken stairs and missing bits of hallway he finally found the stairs that got him to the spot that he’d never wanted to go again. He had never been back after watching Dumbledore fall from him only the year before.

 

“Ron? What are you doing?”

 

Ron sat on the ledge of the tower, hunched into a ball and staring at the stars.

 

“Mars is bright tonight,” Ron mumbled.

 

“How did you get up here?” Harry asked.

 

Ron, without looking away, cocked his head to the side. Harry saw Ron’s broom leaning against the wall.

 

“Why hadn’t I thought of that?” Harry asked.

 

“Perhaps you had other things on your mind.”

 

Harry shrugged and joined Ron on the battlements. “What are you doing?”

 

“Just thinking.”

 

“Thinking about what?” Harry asked. He had never heard Ron so evasive; he wasn’t used to having to question him so thoroughly to get answers.

 

“About everything, about nothing.”

 

“Thanks for clearing that up.”

 

Ron looked at him finally and smiled. It was then that Harry realized that Ron’s eyes were red rimmed and his smile didn’t reach any other part of his face. Harry once again, and not for the last time, wondered what exactly “victory” meant.

 

“Remember that first day I met you on the train?”

 

“Hard to forget.”

 

“I told you that being the youngest son; I would never be special that no matter what I did, it had already been done before and probably better?”

 

“Yeah, I remember. Look how wrong you were.”

 

Ron chuckled soundlessly. “Yeah. I’m the big war hero and my brother is…is…dead.”

 

Harry had no words to comfort. He knew soon that everyone would be looking to him to soothe the aches of death and destruction, but here, now with his best mate’s sorrow, words seemed hollow.  He put his arm around Ron and held onto him tightly and carefully allowed his shoulder to be used as comfort and as handkerchief.

 

They stayed like that for a long time; Harry rubbing Ron’s back allowing him to grieve. Finally, Ron’s breath hitched for the last time and he pulled away, wiping his eyes. Not looking at Harry, continuing with his stargazing, he said, “The thing is, the moment I said it that day, I knew it wasn’t true. I knew the moment I met you that I would be hitching my fate to yours, for better or worse, no matter what. I knew that our lives would be extraordinary.”

 

Ron’s words warmed Harry in ways he wasn’t expecting, but weren’t entirely unfamiliar. There were so many things that he wanted to do to express how he felt for Ron, but none of them ever seemed appropriate, so he took that need he had to reach out to his mate, and instead clumsily ran fingers through his own hair.

 

“Since we’re confessing things,” Harry said after clearing his throat. “When I was training to make a Patronus; when Remus…” he stopped for a moment, filled with his own sorrow. “Professor Lupin told me to think of the happiest thing I could. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was that day when I met you.”

 

Ron looked at him and this time the smile reached his eyes. There was a moment when Harry was convinced that Ron was going to lean over and they were finally going to express the true feeling that Harry was certain they both shared.

 

Instead, Ron nudged him hard. “You’re such a girl.” And the moment was gone where all the other moments like it resided, and they began teasing and mocking each other until the grief had been lifted… for the time being.

 


End file.
